More Than Just Vegetables at Roadside This Summer

Every Thursday this summer and into the fall, from 10 a.m. to noon, a pop-up vegetable stand offers fresh, seasonal produce grown just down the road at Gould Farm: crisp lettuces, earthy carrots, fragrant herbs, juicy tomatoes — the best of what our garden team has to offer.

On the surface, it’s a simple farm stand. But like much at Gould Farm, there’s a deeper story growing here.

Since 1913, Gould Farm has been a place of healing and recovery for adults from across the country living with mental health challenges. Through community life and meaningful work — whether baking bread, tending animals, preparing meals, or growing food in the gardens — the Farm provides a unique, restorative environment that supports people on their journey toward wellness and independence.

The vegetables you’ll find at the stand aren’t just local — they’re personal. They’ve been sown, tended, and harvested by Gould Farm guests (the people who come to the Farm for support) as part of a structured therapeutic work program. In the garden, guests engage in the full cycle of the growing season: planting seeds in the greenhouse, watering, weeding, and finally harvesting the food they’ve helped nurture. These rhythms do more than sustain the Farm — they rebuild confidence, foster connection, and offer a pathway to recovery.

The garden team also shares its abundance beyond the Farm, regularly donating produce to local food pantries and reserving community-supported agriculture (CSA) shares for families using WIC benefits.

The vegetable stand at Roadside is one more way the Farm connects with the wider community. Roadside itself is a social enterprise café operated by Gould Farm, where every purchase helps support the Farm’s mission. No tips are accepted — only donations — and many of the items on the shelves, from bagels to cheese to handmade soaps, are produced right on the Farm.

But perhaps what’s most special about Roadside is the sense of welcome it offers. It’s a gathering place where visitors, locals, and Farm guests come together over coffee and conversation. In an era when many communities are feeling the effects of disconnection and rapid change, spaces like this matter. They offer a way to slow down, to meet people where they are, and to experience the simple, sustaining power of community.

So if you find yourself in western Massachusetts this summer, stop by Roadside on a Thursday morning. Come for the vegetables. Stay for the stories. And maybe you’ll leave with a deeper appreciation for how small gestures — a bunch of carrots, a loaf of bread, a shared conversation — can root us more deeply to each other.